After an expansive litany of problems, the weekend relaunch of the federal HealthCare.gov website has also marked the restart of a public relations war for the hearts and minds of Americans.

The battle will determine whether President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will survive to attempt to deliver on its promises.

One side – made up of Republicans, business interests and conservatives – argue vehemently that the act is not viable and will poison the nation's delicate economic recovery. Their principle tactic has been to try and delay or defund the new law outright.

The other side – made up of Democrats, labor unions, and progressive activists – counter that the act is the law of the land, will work, and when in need of adjustment should be altered in a measured fashion.

However the disastrous rollout, in which intense public interest overwhelmed the website's limited capabilities, saw public confidence in the law evaporate.

Esprit de corps on the left eventually followed suit, with many Democratic Washington lawmakers looking for political cover by distancing themselves from the website's PR debacle.

That, in turn, reinvigorated the ideological warriors on the right, who'd lost an electoral referendum on the law in 2012 presidential election and a judicial challenge when the law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court the same year.

Less skittish now that the insurance exchange website has relaunched, the allied forces in support of the Affordable Care Act are now brandishing a new tactic of their own to counter the opposition, and it harkens back to the “vast right wing conspiracy” of Hillary Clinton fame.

This latest leftist stratagem aims to blame the handful of Republican governors – including Pennsylvania's Tom Corbett – who rejected the insurance exchanges for contributing the the website's problematic early days.

“It's pretty clear that this is part of a plan by right wing pro-corporate organizations,” said SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania President Neal Bisno, whose group is the largest union of nurses and health care workers in the commonwealth.

“They have been encouraging Republican governors to refuse to set up the exchanges on the theory that if they don't cooperate, the law collapses,” Bisno added. “Governors like Tom Corbett have put their ideological agenda ahead of what's best for working families.”

That premise is of course discounted flatly by Corbett spokesman Jay Pagni.

“It's disingenuous that certain factions, certain political parties would be criticizing states that chose an option that was given to them by the same group that gave them the choice,” Pagni said. “It's as though the administration is saying 'You can have this choice, but we don't want you to take it'.”

And he was quick to refute the notion that Corbett's opposition to Obamacare was meant to help the Republican presidential ticket in 2012 and harm the Democratic Party's brand in 2013.

“This isn't about a political black eye,” Pagni said. “With all due respect, the Obama administration poked itself in the eye. There's no need for the governor to do that. The evidence is out there already.”

The chronic bout of ideological table tennis over the law's fate does little to move the nation to the presumably mutual goal of insuring all Americans and raising the national health standard.

“All of the noise is intended to get people confused, to tune out and not participate,” Bisno said. “They're hoping that if people don't participate, the system will collapse.”

Pagni, speaking for the governor, takes the high road.

“It's not their side versus our side,” he said. “It's about embracing those differences to work together to find a solution that best fits our needs.”

Despite such warm platitudes, it's clear the war over the Affordable Care Act will continue to be waged even though it is certain to remain the law of the land so long as Obama is president.

Given that, the three years remaining in his term will likely see the law become an institution familiar – if not fully embraced – by most Americans.

Ironically, no matter which way the winds blow in the battle over hearts and minds, the patient – America – is destined to get worse before it gets better.

In order to work, the act must spread out the cost of insuring all Americans so that the average cost goes down. By that approach, some people's insurance costs are guaranteed to go up.

“It seems like a good idea up front, but someone has to pay for these 50 million people we're giving insurance to,” said Dr. Bruce MacLeod, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, which represents all physicians in the state and advocates for patients.

“That reality is now coming to bear,” MacLeod added. “You'll see more people say 'It shouldn't rest on my back.' But we're going to have to pay for it. It ain't free.”

Still, MacLeod, an emergency room physician in Pittsburgh, thinks citizens should try out the exchanges, which he expects to work.

In time, he added, the furor will die down, and the law will become as familiar and as acceptable as the prick of pain that precedes a needed inoculation.

“We'll look back and say this was a seminal time,” MacLeod said, noting that the journey to get there promises to be tumultuous. “I am glad I have insurance though.”

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